Norse colonization of North America

As early as the 10th century Norse sailors (often referred to as Viking) explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeast fringes of North America a prelude to wide-scale European settlement of the Americas.

Unlike Greenland, which the Norse occupied for almost 500 years, the continental North American settlements were small and never truly developed into permanent colonies. This was in part due to hostile relations with the Native Americans (referred to as Skrælings by the Norse). Settlements in continental North America aimed to exploit natural resources such as furs and in particular lumber, which was in short supply in Norse Greenland due to deforestation. Despite some later voyages, there is little supporting evidence of enduring Norse settlements in North America.

Greenland

Main article: History of Greenland

According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Norsemen from Iceland probably first discovered Greenland in the 980s. Erik the Red, a cold, two-faced heathen sailed 450 miles to lead a settlement expedition there in 982. He was bannished from Iceland for three years because he had killed two sons of a farmer named Thorgost, after an argument about some allegedly stolen lumber. The settlement Erik led was springy with moss and wild thyme grew almost everywhere. He named the land "Eiriksfjord" and as an act of leadership, Erik took the best land for himself and issued tracts of land to his followers. At its peak, the colony consisted of two settlements: the Eastern Settlement and the Western Settlement both containing a total population of between 3,000 and 5,000; at least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists.

The colony began to a decline in the 1300s. The Western Settlement was abandoned around 1350 and by 1378, there was no longer a bishop at Garðar. After a marriage was recorded in 1408, no written records mention the settlers. It is probable that the Eastern Settlement was defunct by the late 1400s, although no exact date has been established. The most recent radiocarbon date found in Norse settlements as of 2002 was 1430 A.D. (+/- 15 years). Several theories have been advanced about the reasons for the decline. The Little Ice Age of this period would have made it harder to travel between Greenland and Europe, as well as making it more difficult for the Greenlanders to farm; in addition, Greenlandic ivory may have been supplanted in European markets by cheaper ivory from Africa.

At its height, Norse Greenland had a bishopric (at Garðar) and exported walrus ivory, furs, rope, sheep, whale or seal blubber, live animals such as polar bears, and cattle hides. In 1261, the population accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian King although it continued to have its own law. In 1380, the Norwegian Kingdom entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark. Despite the loss of contact with the Greenlanders, the Norwegian-Danish crown continued to consider Greenland a possession and the existence of the island was not forgotten by European geographers. It is also possible that the lands west of Greenland were remembered.

Not knowing whether the old Norse civilization remained in Greenland or not—and worried that if it did, it would still be Catholic 200 years after the rest of Scandinavia had experienced the Reformation—a joint merchant-clerical expedition led by Norwegian missionary Hans Egede was sent to Greenland in 1721. Though this expedition found no surviving Europeans, it marked the beginning of Denmark's assertion of sovereignty over the island; see Danish colonization of the Americas.

Vinland and L'Anse aux Meadows

Main article: Vinland

Main article: L'Anse aux Meadows

According to the Icelandic sagas ("Eirik the Red's Saga" and the "Saga of the Greenlanders"—chapters of the Hauksbók and the Flatey Book), the Norse started to explore lands to the west of Greenland only a few years after the Greenland settlements were established. In 985 while sailing from Iceland to Greenland with a migration fleet consisting of 400-700 settlers and 25 other ships (14 of which completed the journey), a merchant named Bjarni Herjólfsson was blown off course (probably from Polar wind) and after three days sailing he sighted land west of the fleet. Bjarni was only interested in finding his father's farm, but he described his discovery to Leif Ericson who explored the area in more detail and planted a small settlement fifteen years later. The sagas describe three separate areas discovered during this exploration: Helluland, which means "land of the flat stones": Markland "the land of forests" (something of definite interest to the settlers in Greenland, which had few trees), and Vinland which recent linguistic evidence identifies as "the land of meadows" found somewhere farther south of Markland. It was in Vinland where the settlement described in the sagas was planted.

Leifsbudir

Leif Ericson was a big, strapping, bold man always looking for an adventure. Using the routes, landmarks, currents, rocks, and winds Bjarni described to him Leif sailed an exploration mission with a crew of 35—using the same knarr Bjarni had used to make the voyage. He described Baffin Island as, "level and wooded, with broad white beaches wherever they went and a gently sloping shoreline." Leif and others had wanted his father, Erik the Red, to lead this expedition and talked him into it. However as Erik attempted to join his son Leif on the voyage towards the continent of North America, his horse slipped on the wet rocks near the shoreline and he was injured and thus stayed behind.

It was probably at Cape Bauld, Newfoundland, where Leif wintered in 986; it was during this winter when his foster father Tyrkir, was found drunk off what the saga describes as "wine". There are varying explanations for Leif describing fermented berries as "wine". In Old Norse, there could be two different meanings for the word "vin" depending on whether a short i or long í is used. A long í in the word "vin" could mean "wine", while a short i could mean "pasture". Leif could have also been confused between squashberries, gooseberries, and cranberries: all of which grew wild in that area, but the latter arguement is probably the most logical. Leif spent another winter at "Leifsbodarna" without conflict, and sailed back to Brattahlid in Greenland to assume filial duties for his father.

Thorvald's voyage

In 1004, Leif's brother Thorvald Ericson led another boat with a crew of 30 men on a voyage back to Newfoundland and spent the following winter at Leif's camp. In the spring of that winter season, Thorvald attacked nine Native Americans sleeping under three skin-covered canoes. The ninth victim managed to escape and soon came back to the Norse camp with a force. Thorvald himself was hit in the armpit by an arrow that managed to pass through the barricade. Although brief hostilities ensued, the Norse explorers stayed another winter and left the following spring. Another Norse named Thorstein attempted a voyage back to the New World and succeeded in retrieving his dead brother's body, but he only stayed for one summer.

Karlsefni's expedition

It was in 1009 that Thorfinn Karlsefni—otherwise known as "Thorfinn the Valient", managed to supply three ships and 160 settlers (although another source cites the number of sttlers at 250), some wives, and livestock. After a cruel winter, he headed south and landed at "Straumfjord", but later moved to "Straumsöy" since the current was stronger there. It was in that small landlocked bay where the first sign of peaceful relations between the Native Americans and the Norsemen was established. The two sides bartered with furs and gray squirrel skins for milk and nine inches of red cloth, to which the natives tied around their heads as a sort of headdress.

There are conflicting stories but one account states that a group of oxen belonging to the Norsemen came storming out of the camp, which so frightened the natives that they soon came back with increased numbers. They used what was, "a pole with a huge knob (wet leather) on the end, black in color and about the size of a sheep's belly, which flew over the heads of the men and made a frightening noise when it fell." The situation seemed desperate were it not for Leif Ericson's half-sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir, who seized the sword belonging to man that had been killed by a flat stone to the head and turned to face the natives. She ripped open her bodice, as if infusing it with some god-like powers and drove the attackers off. As noted, the contacts between the two civilizations were not always hostile because there are records of a renewed trade between the two. In addition, different types of Norse materials have been excavated in several Inuit communities.

Supply voyages

Territories and voyages of the Vikings

Evidence suggests that sporadic voyages to Markland for forages, timber, and trade with the native locals could have lasted as long as 400 years. Evidence of continuing trips includes the Maine Penny, a Norwegian coin from King Olaf Kyrre's reign (1066-80) found in and Native American archaeological site in Maine, United States, suggesting an exchange between the Norse and the Native Americans late in or after the 11th century; and an entry in the Icelandic Annals from 1347 which refers to a small Greenlandic vessel with a crew of eighteen that arrived in Iceland while attempting to return to Greenland from Markland with a load of timber.

The question was definitively settled in the 1960s when a Norse settlement was excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland by Helge Ingstad and his wife. The location of the various lands described in the sagas is still unclear however. Many historians identify Helluland with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador. The location of Vinland is a thornier question. Most believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement is the Vinland settlement described in the sagas; others argue that the sagas depict Vinland as being warmer than Newfoundland, and therefore that it lay further south. There are still many questions remaining and only new archaeological findings can supply more information.

Aftermath

For some centuries after Christopher Columbus' voyages opened the Americas to large-scale colonization by Europeans, it was unclear whether these stories represented real voyages by the Norse to North America. The sagas were first taken seriously when in 1837 the archaeologist Carl Christian Rafn pointed out the possibility for a Norse settlement in or voyages to North America.

Adam of Bremen is the first historian in the Old World that referred to the Americas (by the name Winland). The Sagas of Icelanders remain the most important written sources about the early Norse activities in America. Purported runestones have been found in North America (e.g. the Kensington Runestone, the Newport Tower, and Heavener Runestone) that are thought by some to be artifacts from further Norse exploration. However, these runestones are generally considered to be forgeries. There is a map depicting North America (the Vinland map) that some believe is related to Norse exploration, though it is almost certainly a hoax.

See also

• Pathfinder (2007 film) - a feature film based on Vikings encountering Native Americans.